Everyone -
I apologize for being mostly-absent here in the comments, I am pushing to finish up the book proposal in the next few weeks with every spare moment.
But I do still read everyone's comments.
For those commenting on the "will it work" aspect here, a simple question: wouldn't it be interesting to do such a study and find out how the American people would divvy up their tax money? Purely academic, some poly-sci grad student, I mean.
And the $64,000 question: what would the results look like? The more I ponder that question, the less certain of any answers I come up with, personally...
-CW